As we go through Sons of Anarchy Season 6, I’ll do my best to keep from overusing a really cool word — “penultimate.” Even though, hey, it’s totally appropriate, seeing as it means “next to last,” and creator Kurt Sutter has assured us the tale of SAMCRO will end after Season 7. That’s another reason not to use “penultimate,” because I don’t really need or want any reminders that one of my favorite shows has an end in sight. Although as sad as it will be to see Sons of Anarchy go, we can take comfort that Sutter and Co. are going to get to tell the story exactly the way they want to tell it.

After screening the first three episodes, they are off to a compelling start, with plenty of the “oh sh!t” moments that make every hour feel like life or bloody, horribly violent death. And no, I’m not going to spoil anything for you (come back for the recaps for that), other than to say it continually amuses me the degradation Sutter puts himself through as an actor. As Otto he has had an eye gouged out, been continually beaten up, bit through his own tongue, and in this week’s season premiere … well, let’s just say Norm MacDonald could probably make a pretty good joke about it.

The guest stars are also high quality this season, with Peter Weller as a crooked, connected ex-cop who goes into business with the Sons. The character is prone to quick, brutal outbursts of violence, which I like to imagine are good representations of Weller’s own thoughts about the upcoming Robocop remake. Then there’s Kim Dickens as a madam at a high-end brothel— er, escort service — who catches Jax’s eye. Law & Order star CCH Pounder treads familiar ground as a district attorney out to bring SAMCRO down. All of these folks turn in quality work, but the real guest star to watch is Donal Logue as Lee Toric, the ex-U.S. Marshal out to avenge the death of his sister. Of all the big bads the Sons have faced, whether it be white supremacists, street gangs, drug cartels, crime syndicates, law enforcement, Toric feels the most dangerous. Probably because this isn’t business to him, it’s as personal as it can get. He is razor focused and, as his increasingly shocking actions prove, he will absolutely not stop until SAMCRO is no more.

There is an effort to add a pronounced weird side to Toric’s character, which I understand from a writer’s perspective why that would be appealing to create, but as a viewer, it’d be nice to have a little more of a white hat good guy for once. The last time they tried that was with Hale, until they decided to kill him off as casually as you would swat a pesky fly. Such a lost opportunity, because it would have been interesting to see how his clean-up-the-town crusade would eventually have played out. But who knows, maybe it’s just the particular direction that they’re taking Toric that feels a bit weary. It’s one thing for a guy to have some issues and hang-ups, but Toric quickly becomes next to impossible to root for.

Anyway, I think that’s enough for now. Like I said, swing back by for recaps where we can go into much more detail and shake our heads in disbelief that Sons of Anarchy actually went there. You think we’d be used to it by now, but part of the fun is still being able to be shocked. Also, it’s great to see Charlie Hunnam knocking it out of the park as Jax. It was tough watching how bland they made him in Pacific Rim, and I don’t relish having to see him bring Twilight fan fiction to life in Fifty Shades of Grey. Regardless of all that, though, we’ll always have Charming.

I’m really confused with the start date of Sons of Anarchy. I’m reading season 6 starts tonight, Tuesday, September 10th at 10pm on FX but when I looked on Rogers TV guide its stating Season 4 is premiering. I hope you can clear this up for me so I don’t miss the premier. Thanks!